People have a lot of opinions about the basement of the universe. You’ve seen the cartoons: a red guy with a pitchfork, guys in suits shoveling coal, and endless lakes of fire. But if you actually sit down and look at the text, the answer to what does the bible say hell is like is way more nuanced—and honestly, a lot more terrifying—than a Renaissance painting. It isn't just one single image. The Bible uses a massive library of metaphors that sometimes seem to contradict each other, moving from "outer darkness" to "unquenchable fire" in the span of a few pages.
It’s complicated.
Most people assume hell is just a place where bad people go to get burned. However, the biblical writers weren't just trying to describe a physical location. They were trying to describe a state of existence defined by the total absence of God. When you start digging into the Hebrew and Greek words behind our English translations, you realize that "Hell" is actually a catch-all term for several different concepts: Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, and Tartarus.
The Valley of Smoldering Trash: Gehenna and the Visuals of Fire
When Jesus talked about hell, he usually used the word Gehenna. If you were standing in Jerusalem back then, you could literally point to it. Gehenna was the Valley of Hinnom, a place just south of the city walls with a dark history of child sacrifice in the Old Testament. By the first century, it had basically become the city dump. It was a place where fires burned constantly to consume refuse, and maggots crawled through the waste.
This is where we get the "worm that does not die" and the "unquenchable fire."
It’s a gritty, visceral image. Jesus wasn't necessarily saying hell is a literal trash heap, but he was using the most disgusting, shameful place his audience knew to describe the destiny of a life lived in opposition to God’s kingdom. It signifies waste. It’s the idea of a life meant for something beautiful being discarded because it refused its purpose.
The fire imagery appears everywhere, from the "lake of fire" in Revelation 20 to the "fiery furnace" in Matthew 13. Is it literal fire? Some scholars, like the late John Stott, argued that these are metaphors for "annihilation"—meaning the fire consumes until there is nothing left. Others, following the tradition of Augustine and Aquinas, argue it’s a metaphor for the internal "burning" of a conscience that realizes it has lost everything.
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The Sound of Regret: Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth
One of the most haunting phrases in the New Testament is "weeping and gnashing of teeth." It shows up seven times.
Think about that for a second.
Weeping is the sound of profound grief and loss. It’s the realization that you missed the boat. Gnashing of teeth, on the other hand, is often interpreted as an expression of extreme pain, but in the Ancient Near East, it was more commonly a sign of rage or fury. It’s the sound of someone who is still angry, still defiant, even in the face of their own ruin.
This suggests that hell isn't just a place of passive suffering. It’s a place of active, ongoing psychological torment. C.S. Lewis famously said that the doors of hell are locked from the inside. The idea is that the inhabitants of hell aren't necessarily begging to get into heaven; they are locked in a cycle of self-obsession and resentment. They are "gnashing" at the reality they've created for themselves.
The Darkness That Can Be Felt
Here is where it gets weird. How can a place be a "lake of fire" and "outer darkness" at the same time?
Fire gives off light.
Logically, you can't have both in a literal sense. This is why most theologians think these are symbols of a reality that is far worse than the symbols themselves. The "outer darkness" (Matthew 22:13) describes total isolation. It is the absolute opposite of the biblical vision of heaven, which is a city, a banquet, a wedding—places of intense community and light.
Hell, by contrast, is the "outside." It is the loneliness of a soul that has finally gotten what it always wanted: to be left completely alone, away from the "intrusive" love of God.
Sheol and Hades: The Waiting Room?
In the Old Testament, the concept was much vaguer. They called it Sheol.
Sheol wasn't necessarily a place of punishment for the "bad guys." It was simply the place of the dead. Everyone went there. It was described as a shadowy, silent existence under the earth. As the biblical narrative progresses, especially in the period between the Old and New Testaments, this idea evolved.
By the time Jesus tells the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus in Luke 16, he describes a "Great Chasm" separating the righteous from the unrighteous within the realm of the dead. The rich man is in "Hades," experiencing "torment" and "thirst," while Lazarus is at "Abraham’s side."
This story is crucial because it highlights the role of memory. The rich man remembers his brothers. He remembers his past life. Part of the "fire" seems to be the clarity of hindsight—seeing exactly where you went wrong and knowing you can’t go back.
Common Misconceptions About the Devil’s Role
We need to clear something up: Satan is not the king of hell.
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You won't find a single verse in the Bible that says the devil is in charge of punishing people or that he’s walking around with a pitchfork. In fact, according to Matthew 25:41, hell was "prepared for the devil and his angels."
The devil isn't the warden; he's the inmate.
The popular idea of demons poking people with spears is more influenced by Dante’s Inferno and Milton’s Paradise Lost than the actual Greek or Hebrew scriptures. The biblical depiction is that of a cosmic tragedy where those who align themselves with "The Accuser" end up sharing his fate of ultimate exile.
Degrees of Punishment and Justice
Does a white-collar thief get the same "hell" as a genocidal dictator?
The Bible actually hints at degrees of punishment. In Luke 12, Jesus speaks of servants who knew their master’s will and didn't do it receiving a "severe beating," while those who didn't know receive a "light beating." In Matthew 11, Jesus says it will be "more bearable" for the wicked city of Sodom on the day of judgment than for the cities that saw his miracles and still rejected him.
This suggests that the "experience" of hell is tied to the light an individual had and what they did with it. It’s not a one-size-fits-all furnace. It’s a manifestation of divine justice that takes into account the specifics of a person's life and heart.
Why This Matters Today: Actionable Insights
Understanding the biblical view of hell isn't just about ancient history or "fire and brimstone" preaching. It’s about the gravity of human choice.
If hell is the natural trajectory of a life lived away from God—a "sliding toward the center" of one's own ego—then the "remedy" isn't just about avoiding a place. It's about a change of direction right now.
Audit Your Inner Trajectory
Look at your habits of resentment, pride, and isolation. The biblical "gnashing of teeth" starts as a habit of the heart. If you find yourself constantly angry at the world or pulling away from community, you're practicing for a state of being the Bible calls "outer darkness."
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Practice Presence and Gratitude
If the essence of hell is the absence of God's presence, then the "practice of the presence of God" is the ultimate preventative. Engaging in mindfulness, prayer, or even simple acts of service breaks the cycle of self-obsession that leads to the "Gehenna" of the soul.
Seek Intellectual Nuance
Stop relying on pop culture versions of theology. Whether you are a believer or a skeptic, understanding that the biblical writers were using sophisticated, multi-layered metaphors allows for a much more honest conversation about ethics, justice, and the afterlife. Read the primary sources. Compare the parables.
Focus on Restoration
The Bible’s warnings about hell are almost always coupled with an invitation to "the Kingdom." The point of the warning isn't to paralyze people with fear, but to highlight the value of the alternative. The light is only meaningful because the darkness is real.
The reality of hell, as described in the Bible, is the sobering recognition that our choices have permanent weight. It’s the "No" that gives the "Yes" of heaven its power. Whether you view it as literal fire or a metaphorical state of exile, the core message remains: a life disconnected from its source eventually becomes a shadow of itself.
Next Steps for Deeper Study:
- Read Luke 16:19-31 to see how Jesus uses the concept of the "Great Chasm."
- Research the term "Universalism vs. Annihilationism vs. Eternal Conscious Torment" to understand the three main ways Christians have historically interpreted these verses.
- Compare the descriptions of Gehenna in the New Testament with the historical descriptions of the Hinnom Valley in 1st-century Jerusalem.